One Joke Killed the Music
by TheCuriousInferno
Summary: Nozomi notices that Eli is afraid of the dark and decides to play a little prank on her. It's all meant in good fun, but she learns very quickly that you shouldn't make jokes of people's phobias. She knows she's messed up, but she's determined to set things right.


It was a simple thing. She didn't think too much of it other than it might be funny. Nozomi wasn't quite sure when she first noticed Eli's behavior around nighttime, but it certainly lacked subtly. Whenever they ran errands together or were simply enjoying each other's company, Eli was quick to leave if it ever got too late. Regardless of whose house they would visit, Eli always left a trail of lights wherever she went that Nozomi would have to then turn off lest either party suffer a painful electric bill.

Rather than ask about Eli's phobia or prod an answer out of the moderately proud girl's façade, Nozomi decided on a simple solution. She waited for a quiet day. Her and Eli had gone their usual route after school, enjoyed a parfait and shopped a little before settling at Nozomi's home. She planned ahead by shutting the blinds to her window before leaving the house that morning. No light would be able to filter in. Patiently, she allowed Eli to shed her school bag and make herself comfortable on the bed.

"Did you understand the material we went over in math today?" Eli's voice was like a bell. "I think I have it, but I'd like to see how you work this one in particular out." She reached into her bag to withdraw the necessary paperwork and Nozomi smiled, her fingers already hovering over the light switch.

 _Click._ It was a simple thing. With a meager flick of her finger, darkness flooded the room like a cold wave. Nozomi strained to see Eli's outline shadowing the bed. She waited for Eli's reprimands or for her to cry out in shock of the sudden loss of light, but it remained quiet. Painfully so. Nozomi's eyes adjusted quickly and she found Eli's face in the umbra of the room. A pit began to form in her gut.

She was prepared for fear, but _this_ was something she hadn't expected. Eli's body went entirely rigid, to the point that she couldn't even scream. Tears welled up in her eyes and her shoulders heaved rapidly as she began to hyperventilate.

"P-please," her voice crept out of her throat and was barely audible. "I-I can't…"

No, this was all wrong. Nozomi's smile died. For a moment she could only stand there dumbfounded by Eli's severely adverse reaction. It was just a little prank. This wasn't supposed to happen.

As quickly as she had turned everything off, she flipped the switch back on and the room ignited with light. She rushed over to Eli who was still paralyzed on the bed and whose fingers gripped at her school folder like claws.

Nozomi threw her arms around the girl and her heart sank at the realization that poor Eli was still quivering. "Eli I'm so sorry," she proclaimed, tightening her grip on the blonde. "I'm so, so sorry. I didn't—I thought—I just wanted—

She couldn't form the words. They weren't good enough. There wasn't anything worth saying that could excuse the terror she had caused. She felt horrible. She herself wanted to cry.

Eli's tears seeped onto her shoulder, but her trembling began to ease.

Her grip tightened. "That was awful of me, I'm sorry. Please don't cry, I'm here. I'm here, Eli. Please."

"N-Nozomi," Eli's voice seemed less shaky and meek. "Nozomi why…why would you do that?"

The question stabbed her in the gut. "I…it was just supposed to be a harmless prank," she replied, drawing away from Eli whose face was no longer awash with terror but now with anger. Her brows began to furrow and she shoved Nozomi away from her.

"That _wasn't_ funny." She snatched her bag off of the floor. "I'm going home."

Nozomi reached for Eli's hand, but she couldn't get to her fast enough and before she knew it, Eli was storming through her bedroom door.

"Eli, wait!" she shouted as she chased after the other girl. "Please, wait, let me apologize!" Fortunately she was able to cut Eli off at the kitchen. The girl was visibly less than pleased by Nozomi's obstruction.

"Nozomi, move."

"Please forgive me! What I did was cruel, but please don't hate me. I'll buy you sweets for the next week—month! However long you want me to! Please, Eli, I'm so sorry."

"I'm angry with you. I don't want sweets; I want to go home."

Nozomi's shoulders dropped in defeat. She gave Eli one last pleading look, but was met with a smoldering glare that could've melted metal. "I'm sorry," she said again, stepping aside so Eli could pass. The door slammed shut behind the blonde, leaving Nozomi staring at the frame in the dim ambience of her unlit kitchen.

She only meant for it to be a harmless prank.

* * *

Nozomi wasn't used to the silence. She supposed that it couldn't have been much different than the days spent drifting from school to school. Before her very first encounter with Eli Ayase, Nozomi never took note of faces or names. She never allowed pieces of herself to linger in the schools she left behind and never permitted her name to hang in the mouths and ears of students she would never see again.

She grew up in quiet solitude, but thanks to Eli Ayase, she had formed a world full of music. The girls were two sides of the same coin. They both shouldered the entrances of their hearts and refused anybody that treaded too close. Nozomi never thought she could be so happy knowing somebody as stubborn as herself, but Eli became the most important person in the world to her.

This realm of sound enthralled her and she had ruined it. Worse yet, she caused pain to the one who made everything beautiful to begin with. She felt like she had killed the swan before its last song.

For the first time in what felt like ages, Nozomi walked home by herself. Eli had kept scarce all day and it was far better to leave her be, Nozomi surmised, than to try and beg for clemency so soon after the incident. She wasn't used to being alone anymore. It was fair to say she hated it. There could be no worse company than herself.

Nozomi sighed as she approached her doorstep in what appeared to be record time. Without Eli to wait for, she hardly had a reason to linger on school grounds. There were no unexpected detours, trips to the café or ice cream parlor. There was no spontaneity, no laughter, no warmth…

No music.

The door groaned in protest as she passed through. She had barely stepped halfway inside before tossing her bags aside. Backed against the cold, hard face of the door, she slid until she met the ground and stared vacantly at the ceiling. What had she done? And for such a stupid reason as her own curiosity.

All she could see, no matter where she looked or how tightly she shut her eyes was the sheer terror on Eli's face. It stretched beyond death and into the existential nightmare of human existence. Nozomi had to apologize, but that was easier said than done. Eli wanted nothing to do with her at the moment. Yesterday had been a horrible mistake and she wished to all the gods she could think of that she hadn't had done such a stupid, stupid thing. She reached for her bag and dug her phone out of the side pocket and gazed into the screen. Three messages had been sent, but not one received a reply.

Truth be told, she understood that she didn't deserve a reply. She could apologize every day until she died (assuming Eli would put up with her for that long) and she would still be undeserving of anything. You can't hurt someone you care about and expect 'I'm sorry' to bury the wounds.

Nozomi pushed the palms of her hands into her eyes until she saw stars in the back of her eyelids. It had been a long time since she'd cried, so she wasn't surprised to find her eyes producing nothing but a dry burn. Of course she wanted to cry, but she supposed that doing so would only ease a pain that she should have to carry.

The rest of that day played out in solitude and mind numbing silence. Years had passed of her being alone, and in such a short amount of time Eli had made her love the company of others. Loneliness was what _Nozomi_ feared, so perhaps this was a fair punishment.

* * *

By the end of the third day she couldn't take it anymore. The silence, the guilt, the crushing sense of loneliness. Whether or not Eli would let her, Nozomi was going to make things right. She couldn't live with herself if this carried on any longer. As horrible as she felt right now, she knew it must've been worse for Eli.

Before she went to bed that night, she stood in front of her mirror and rehearsed all the things she wanted to say like a child practicing for a play. What words would she lead with? What would she end with? How could she articulate how she felt in a way that wouldn't make her apology seem self-gratifying? She wanted things to go back to the way they were, yes, but her feelings weren't as important as trying to rectify the damage she had caused her first and only friend.

At that thought, she glanced over at her tarot cards arranged neatly on the vanity. For a good portion of her life, these were her only source of friendship. No matter where life took her, she could bring them along. They provided a necessary comfort for her and in spite of Nozomi's growth since then, she still relied on their guidance. Perhaps if she had consulted them in regards to Eli's nyctophobia, this entire ordeal could've been avoided. Hindsight's twenty-twenty, she purported.

Nozomi took the stack in hand and shuffled through them intently, passing the faces of each card as if they were each old friends. She came upon the Hanged Man who gave her words of encouragement, the Lovers who relayed praise, and she lingered on The Fool whose council was anticipated but not wholly discomforting. Strength was the last card she studied before placing them back on the vanity—it was the one she figured she needed most. Tomorrow would present an arduous task, but Nozomi's determination bubbled in her chest.

As morning came, Nozomi awoke before her alarm had even gone off. She stopped by her mirror to give herself one last pep talk before hurrying off to school. She knew Eli's schedule. The student council president arrived well before classes began and Nozomi hoped that habit hadn't changed in light of recent events. This was her chance to catch Eli before she could escape into another day of wretched silence.

Even as the student council vice president, Nozomi had never been this early for school. The campus was eerily still, save for the scattered murmurs of exceptionally diligent students or a few overzealous club members. The teachers she passed by on her way to the student council room all remarked on Nozomi's earliness, but she had little time to give anything more than basic pleasantries. Only one of them provided any useful information, and that was that a certain Eli Ayase had already began working in the student council room.

Nozomi didn't waste time thinking about what Eli would say to her, how angry she would be, or if she would even listen to the things she had to say. Before anything could stop her or she had a chance to second-guess herself, she ripped the door to the student council room open. Once it was, however, time seemed to stand still.

Sitting alone in the large, vacant classroom, Eli Ayase appeared beyond irritated at Nozomi's intrusion. Her fierce blue eyes narrowed on Nozomi for a moment before she returned to the paperwork.

"You're early," she said. These were the first words she'd spoken to her in two days and the rush of hearing Eli's voice nearly knocked Nozomi to her knees.

"Listen…" Nozomi fumbled around for the words she had recited over and over again last night, but performances never played out like practice. "About the other day." She didn't leave Eli room to interject. "Eli, I'm sorry. I'm so, so very sorry. You have every right to be angry, and I don't expect you to forgive me anytime soon, but I can't stand this. I'll do anything, just please…"

She couldn't say it. Please don't hate me. Please talk to me. Being alone is so painful. Eli turned away from her and folded her arms as she always did. The confidence Nozomi had spent so long building up began to crumble.

"It hurts, doesn't it?" Eli's response was surprisingly prompt. "I can hear it in your voice. Being by yourself…you hate it, don't you?"

"Yes."

At her reply, Eli jolted up from the desk and rushed over to where Nozomi was standing. Her eyes were teary and her cheeks were flushed red from anger with the slightest hint of resentment. "Now you know how I felt," she growled. "Now you know what it felt like to have the person I care most about make me feel like a child…make me feel like…I…I…"

Eli trailed off before seizing Nozomi in an unexpected embrace. "If you were anybody else, I wouldn't have been so bothered," she admitted into Nozomi's shoulder. "You are the person I trust most and to have you take a great personal fear of mine and play with it…"

"I'm so sorry," Nozomi relented, wrapping her arms around Eli. "I didn't think it through and it kills me to know I upset you so much."

"And you know," Eli began, "I thought to myself 'how can I get back at her'. I hoped that if I could do to you what you did to me I'd feel better." She paused and withdrew from Nozomi's arms just enough that she could cup the Nozomi's face with her hands. Eli's eyes were much softer now and she put on a meek smile before continuing. "But I didn't. Yesterday I saw you walking home by yourself and you seemed so…dead inside. Seeing you so dejected didn't make me feel better. As mad as I still am, that's not what I want."

Nozomi couldn't help but laugh through her own tears. "I had so much I wanted to say to you, Elicchi, but you're doing all the talking" Eli's hands were warm on her cheeks and she didn't resist interlacing her fingers over them. "But I'm glad to hear your voice. I missed that."

"I want to apologize for doing that to you."

"You don't have to, Elicchi. It makes us even."

Eli shook her head. "No, I don't want to be even. There is no even. Look, Nozomi. I'm not good with my emotions and you can act without thinking. What you did was wrong, but I probably could've handled it in a less vindictive way. It's not like you did it with the intention of causing me crippling anxiety, right?"

"O-of course not!"

"And you learned your lesson?" Nozomi nodded. "Ok, then that's enough for me."

"You said you were still mad, though."

"I'm furious. Nothing about how I feel has changed, I just don't think that torturing you with the silent treatment is a fair punishment. However, if you want to start making it up to me, I have a stack of papers I need filed. And you're going to come with me to the market tomorrow and you're going to buy me whatever I want."

Nozomi grinned. "Anything for my Elicchi."

"And I'll be hearing that heartfelt apology that you mentioned earlier."

"Whenever you're ready to hear it."

Eli smiled, but not in a way that read that she was totally happy with their resolution. Despite how wonderful making peace with Eli was, they had only really made progress towards a greater goal. That in no way cheapened the day's accomplishment, but Nozomi knew she wasn't quite out of the doghouse.

"This is a much better arrangement," Eli said as they eventually settled into doing their student council chores. "Not talking to you was making work difficult and it was hard to explain to the other council members that I was ignoring you on purpose."

"I was too distracted to do anything productive, so I have to agree."

"I love you, Nozomi, but we have to work on your judgement skills."

"If I agree to that, would you let me help you overcome your fear of the dark?

Surprised, Eli didn't immediately respond. Her face did redden considerably before she could completely hide her reaction. "I won't promise anything."

Nozomi sighed contentedly and gave Eli an endearing grin. The student council president noticed right away that she was being surveyed intently and her face burned with a deeper blush.

"What are you looking at me like that for?"

"Nothing, I'm just making up for the two days that I didn't really get to see you. You're very pretty, Elicchi."

Eli scoffed. "Flattery won't make me forgive you any faster."

"I know, I know."

In spite of the resistance, Nozomi couldn't take her eyes of Eli (she had long given up trying to do any actual work). Her chest swelled with a calm serenity as Eli's voice brought music back into the world.

"I love you too, Elicchi," she beamed.


End file.
